On Idiomatic Expressions

By Ana Marques

The latest topic of our Affair sessions has been Idiomatic Expressions. A friend of mine, who’s in the Advanced Level, had already introduced me to it, when she told me I have green hands.

I learned that this means I like to grow stuff, like vegetables, herbs, plants or bonsais (which aren’t meant to grow actually… and literally too!). I embraced this topic because it’s very frustrating when I’m reading a novel or watching a film without subtitles and I’m not able to understand the meaning of the expressions used!
So, bring it on!!

I learned a lot of funny stuff! Although I have a sweet tooth, I learned that I can’t have my cake and eat it (how unfair is that?!).

Holly cow!! I discovered that this lovely animal is very useful whether I’m upset (having a cow) or waiting for a long time (until the cows come home).

Pigs are very represented as well, and cats, dogs, birds, bees, lions, horses, and so on. It’s like a big Zoo with so many species of expressions that there would be no room to swing a cat.

(There are eggs in the animal idioms list as well, I don’t know why!)

I took the bull by the horns and accepted my teacher’s suggestion for writing a text with idioms, even if doing homework is not my cup of tea. And now look at me: I’m full beans shooting expressions to this piece of paper. Or maybe I’m just buttering my teacher up so she doesn’t send me a lot of exercises for homework during holidays. But actually, I don’t think she’s going to buy it because she’s a smart cookie who can smell a rat!

In a nutshell, I racked my brain to put all of these expressions together in the same cheesy text.